A delicious journey through Italy and a celebration of the relationship between family and food. Moving from the Italian Piedmont to the Maremma and then to Le Marche, chef Teresa Lust interweaves portraits of the people who served as her culinary guides with cultural and natural history in this charming exploration of authentic Italian cuisine. We learn how to prepare bagna cauda—a robust dipping sauce of anchovies, garlic, and olive oil—with Lust’s relatives outside Torino. We learn about making hand-stretched grissini, Italy’s iconic breadstick, the secrets of whipping up zabaione, a classic dessert of ethereal foam made with egg yolks, sugar, and marsala. Then there is acquacotta, a rustic soup that nourished generations of the area’s shepherds and cowhands. In the town of Camerano, an eighty-year-old woman reveals the art of hand-rolling pasta with a three-foot rolling pin. Underpinning Lust’s travels is our journey from chef to cook, mirroring the fact that Italians have been masters of home cooking for generations, so they are an obvious source of inspiration. Today, more and more people are rediscovering the pleasures of cooking at home, and Lust’s account—and wonderful recipes—will help readers bring an Italian sensibility to their home tables.

In The Tradition of M.F.K. Fisher and Laurie Colwin, Teresa Lust writes about the preparation of food and the breaking of bread with the exuberance of an impassioned cook and the clarity of a graceful writer. The author venerates old-fashioned simplicity -- from stove-top coffee in a rustic Italian cucina to antique varieties of apples in a New Hampshire orchard. She skewers passing food trends: "Polenta is family food. Mama feeds it to her baby when his teeth are coming in. Papa feeds it to his mama when her teeth have fallen out". And she offers a smorgasbord of food trivia: The artichoke "enjoyed a long reign as an aphrodisiac because of its alleged ability to heat the body ... Catherine de Medici could not contain her scandalous predilection for artichokes". A professional chef and skilled culinary historian, Lust has created a book that is part memoir, part cookbook, and part exploration into the origins of her favorite foods and dishes. It is a celebration of home cooking and of people who know how to make meals more than just thrice-daily opportunities to refuel.Lusts chapters typically revolve around stories that include the preparation or consumption of a particular dish -- from chicken with figs and fresh thyme to spaghetti alla carbonara -- and Pass the Polenta contains an index of recipes that readers will come to treasure.

Women of Privilege traces the decline of a once-privileged Hudson River Valley family whose neighbors were Vanderbilts, Delanos, and Roosevelts. Based on diaries and journals, and written by a family descendant, it combines biography and memoir with social history.

The New York Times–bestselling author of The Forest Feast returns with a gorgeously illustrated volume of 100 new vegetarian recipes for entertaining. When food photographer Erin Gleeson left New York City to live in a cabin in the woods of northern California, she embarked on a culinary adventure of vegetable-centric, seasonal cooking. In The Forest Feast Gatherings, she shares simple, healthy recipes that are easy enough to prepare after a long day at work, yet impressive enough for a party. Along with her visually stunning photography and watercolors, Erin handwrites each recipe to create diagram-like, step-by-step instructions that are vibrant, unique, and east to cook from. She also offers guidance on hosting casual yet thoughtful get-togethers from start to finish. The book offers 100 new, innovative vegetarian recipes that serve 60 to 8, along with some fan favorites from the blog, arranged in a series of artfully designed menus that are tailored around specific occasions—whether a summer dinner party, a laid-back brunch, a vegan and gluten-free gathering, or holiday cocktails.

Finalist for the Art of Eating Prize A richly illustrated culinary tour of the United States through fifty signature dishes, and a radical exploration of our gastronomic heritage. Following his critically acclaimed Preparing the Ghost, renowned essayist Matthew Gavin Frank takes on America’s food. In a surprising style reminiscent of Maggie Nelson or Mark Doty, Frank examines a quintessential dish in each state, interweaving the culinary with personal and cultural associations of each region. From key lime pie (Florida) to elk stew (Montana), The Mad Feast commemorates the unexpected origins of the familiar. Brazenly dissecting the myriad intersections between history and food, Frank, in this gorgeously designed volume, considers politics, sexuality, violence, grief, and pleasure: the cool, creamy whoopie pie evokes toughness in the face of New England winters, while the stewlike perloo serves up an exploration of food and race in the South. Tracing an unpredictable map of our collective appetites, The Mad Feast presents a beguiling flavor profile of the American spirit.

“Merrie Destefano storms the world of urban fantasy…breathing new life into the vast genre of the undead.” —Tosca Lee, author of Havah and Demon: A Memoir “Merrie Destefano has made a fine start on a promising career.” —James Gunn, science fiction Grand Master With her brilliant debut novel, Afterlife, author Merrie Destefano earned herself a place of honor at the banquet table alongside today’s top authors of sf and urban fantasy. With Feast, she serves up another heaping helping of thrills, shivers, wonder, and glorious invention while spicing up the recipe with dark romance in the bestselling vein of C.L Wilson, Marjorie M. Liu, and other paranormal superstars. A spellbinding fantasy of supernatural intrigue and forbidden love, Feast blends vampire and fairy lore, with the resulting dish offering a sumptuous new take on both, as a troubled storyteller returns home to the mysterious autumn woods just prior to Halloween, to find her life and her soul captivated by a cursed immortal, the Lord of the Hunt.

The world is a busy place, and many families rely on fast food. Kent and Shannon Rollins serve up spins on Southern and Western favorites, with a side of spiritual values. Their cookbook is an open invitation to spend time with them, praise the Lord, and pass the biscuits! -- adapted from Introduction.